dmayne7

Replacing dead batteries for some other dead ones probably isn't going to work.

Alves off for Page is rubbish. Soumare and Skipp offering no control at all. All of them have been cack but Alves brighter than most.

Happens all the time here but it's been even quicker than usual. Nelson has had a stinker but now that means he's awful

6' 6 at least

It's been spectacular how quickly people have changed their minds/written players off so far this season.

Nelson has gone from being a Rolls Royce to a Robin Reliant

Yep. Day off

Donnarumma leaving PSG is absolutely mental. Best keeper in the world but because he's not amazing with his feet, he's shipped out. Says everything wrong with modern football. Be an amazing signing for Man City but because of the above, also makes no sense.

You said 10000 seats . Well you're looking at 20 games on average (we'll assume we're in the prem and playing at least 1 game at home), and you be looking at £50 a ticket on average when you factor in the cost of those holding a box and the fact that this stand would have the most expensive tickets for sure. That's £10m. Let's knock it down to £8m to account for the actual 8000. Still an awful lot more than the £4m you quoted. So you ignore all the other potential income benefits and then talk about the immediate ROI. So what's the ROI on Seagrave? Been there nearly 5 years and made £0 from it. The running costs of that place will be massive and it's used every day which means more full time staff, maintenance etc. Perhaps not on the level of the stadium expansion, but a lot of those staff will be doing things that are connected to earning revenue. And if we're talking about interest rates, the whole point was if they built the stadium first in which case interest rates were stupidly low and it absolutely would have brought in money that covered the cost of those interests rates multiple times over. You keep changing the goal posts but the outcome is the same: a stadium expansion is a better and safer investment that a training ground.

Don't know if anybody has heard but apparently Everton can't meet our valuation so have moved onto new targets.

The text is exactly the same apart from the club name

If it's just the seats sold then yes. But you ignored the other points. You have more space to sell sponsorship combined with better prestige (there's a reason you get big sponsorship deals for the stadium and not for training grounds), more corporate spaces, other matchday income (food, merchandise etc), the time spent at the stadium increases if it has more of a fan park atmosphere, potential other uses of the stadium outside the season. Then you have the all non-related football stuff on site; the hotel, the arena etc which could bring in lots of extra revenue. Think more players would be swayed by playing in a swanky 40,000 seater stadium as opposed to a fancy training ground (bear in mind Belvoir Drive had been upgraded a lot over the years so was still pretty decent). You'd be talking a guaranteed £10m+ a year in matchday income plus all the extras. The training ground has no guarantee of youngsters being produced to sell at a profit and you're also just as likely to get them anyway. That's more about the overall investment in the youth setup in terms of coaching. The other way of attracting great talent is the giving players the opportunity to get into the first team and the general standing/prestige of the club (as above, affected more by a stadium and the way that drives growth of the club). As I said, Seagrave was a lot more straightforward so I get that, but it's also more of a vanity/luxury investment. The stadium was unequivocally a better long term financial investment. It should have been both ideally, but if one or the other, it's the stadium.

No way. Faes is perfectly good at this level but he's nowhere near good enough for the PL. Okoli is also plenty good enough at this level plus he's got potential to be a lot better (whether he hits that is a different matter). Plus Faes is a total ****

Most of whom were already in the system pre Seagrave? That's probably more to do with our standing in the game rather than being because they were attracted by Seagrave or it magically making average talents amazing. Nobody is suggesting Seagrave is a waste of money but the commercially sensible thing would have been to progress the stadium first as that would allow us to massively grow matchday, sponsorship and other commercial revenue. Not to mention that a nice stadium has bigger prestige compared to a training ground. We're already in danger of being left behind by similar sized or smaller clubs (Forest, Birmingham etc.). And if you're being cynical about Seagrave, it didn't stop us from losing the likes of Nyoni for nothing and we're still waiting to see what happens with Page, Evans etc. On top of that, the performance of the team has absolutely tanked since we moved to Seagrave, with all the murmurings of a bad culture created there only adding to that.

Saw him live 5 of so years ago and he was pretty poor (and that's when he was hyped up). Very slow

Long day!

Amazing that a player would do that when he was getting booed and scores a last minute 'equalizer' in a cup final. Really don't get why people are so precious about Chilwell. Loads of people thought he was crap so surely getting £50m for him would just make you like him?

I had couscous last night. But it was overcooked so I'm assuming that's a sign that any buyers for BEK will miss leave it too long and not complete the deal

Seagrave over this was a shocking decision (aware that Seagrave was probably a lot easier). Would have cost a fraction of what it will today

Most logical. The other thing is that the PL starts this week, so if it's not a relegation clause (unlikely) then it would also be saying that we need it done before the start of the season

Bit on the nose though. Mind you, plenty of people thick enough to believe it's real

People float this idea often but absolutely not, at least not as part of 2 in there. All those attributes would seem lessened if he were to play in position where he's more exposed to the game. He'd switch off way too often as well. If you're going to go down that route, might as well play Hamza as he's more athletic than Faes. I actually don't think we need that type of defensive midfielder as we'll dominate the ball most games, so better off with a Winks type player.

Vestergaard gets stick because prior to that Enzo season, he was embarrassingly bad when he played, something lots of people forget. He also had a ridiculous easy time in that season as he was barely exposed and when he had the ball, the opposition just sat off him so had all the time in the world to make passes. Prior to the goal yesterday he was pretty poor as well but he's definitely good enough for this level. The issue is we know he's nowhere near good enough for the PL and is potentially blocking a younger centre backs pathway. As for Justin being more of a liability than Faes, that is absolutely laughable. Faes will almost always make 1 big error per game leading to a goal or chance for the opposition. Justin is not the same player he was pre-injury and he didn't have a good season, but it was more a really honking spell rather than the whole season. Unfortunately, people just fixate on that now. Much like how he never plays forward because of his role under Enzo was to not do that and so whenever he doesn't progress it forward, people have that locked in their minds. Faes is again good enough for this level because he'll be less exposed and won't be punished in the same way but he's got a crap attitude and again, definitely not good enough for the next level.

BEK should be in there alongside Winks probably or even Skipp if his job is to sit in. Got enough options in the final third to have somebody else play as a 10 really and would definitely suit BEK more.

@Chelmofox has given you a great reply I think. For what it's worth, I'm absolutely desperate for as to see the young players in there and he'll have a big mark against him if we don't see a lot of Alves, but Nelson not becoming first choice in particular. Also worth remembering that he wasn't here for half of pre-season so has missed some of the games that help you build trust in the younger players. He comes into the building having to form his own opinions as there's nobody at the club who he'd really trust in that respect.